Torquay United Fans Forum

morecombe came up with a free match last season as a one off and ended up with over 4,000 when they normally get 1300 or 1400 fans, bradford did a match for a pound and had 19000 turn up, maybe it is something the club could think about for one game, its a way of attracting people who dont normally go to go again, just a thought!

It's fair to say the board are doing the best they can, the club are doing the best they can and the two main issues are, lack of available funds for investment and lack of interest from the local community in supporting the club on a Matchday. (Stating the obvious)

So, with that identified, what can we as a group of motivated supporters do to help the club and address these issues.

Let's look at the investment issue first.

A supporters trust was set up a while back, what happened to this. Can it be re invigorated, are there others on here with experience in the business world with fairly to good income who would be willing to band together and perhaps pool resources and make a solid investment in the club (even with no means to invest, this should be open to all fans to get involved in.) I may be alone here but i see a lot of potential for Torquay, the club and the town, it saddens me to see what the town has become compared to how it used to be, but none the less i believe that potential is certainly still there.

The second issue, well i would argue a sustained period of success on the pitch would increase gate income and other matchday revenue, but not by a level enough to get us above a mid table league 1 side, and i believe we ought to be striving for the Championship. There is a magic ingredient that gets people interested in a club, be they fair weather fans, armchair fans or neutrals, they are all potential TUFC fans, and we can increase our core support, it just takes time. We need to find a way to create a feelgood factor about the club, some excitement about the potential and try to build on that.

The local media can play it's part here.

As an example though, if we could get a full capacity crowd just once this season, 3500 of those would be people who hadn't been for years or who had never been, and to get them along and experience a full stadium atmosphere, well, if only 10% of those caught the bug, that would be a significant increase in gate revenue. So, how to do this. Offer free tickets to certain groups, or postcodes? pubs? ok but then, wouldn't that create ill feeling amongst the regular paying customers?

I don't know, these are just ideas i'm putting out there, trying to get the ball rolling and want others to contribute and provide feedback. Negativity isn't required, even if you think an idea is stupid, to say so could discourage someone else from putting an idea up that might just be the answer we're looking for.

i live in London but i go to 70% of home games and a lot of away games as well.

During the week, i can;t physically do anything but i'm willing to try to come up with ideas.

From where you are, probably not a lot. From down here, the club, with a little help from a small band of merry nutters are doing all they can.

Matt.

"Do you remember the good old days too, when, under Ling, we made the Playoffs? Christ, getting 10,000 people a week through the gates was amazing.

It's got bollocks all to do with the football on offer and everything to do with an apathetic Torbay public. "


100% agreed.

how can we change it?

Of course you are right, Camb. However, such things do happen...

I will never forget the time when I was party to a "discussion" between a group of "concerned" fans and Chris Roberts in the old Gulls Nest. One of the more vociferous fans was adamant that he had a fair idea what money a certain experienced striker was on a week, Mr. Roberts was adamant that it was nothing like as much as that, and you can imagine our utter disbelief when in order to prove his point he invited said fan to come into the Boardroom while he duly dug out the copy of said player's contract in order to prove that he (Roberts) was indeed right - perhaps the one and only occasion he told the truth during his tenure with us!

As for the Martin Ling contract, I am with those who believe that his 1 year rolling contract meant that he always had a year left. I am sure, as Mid Devon had informed us, that there are other variations of this arrangement in the wider business world but in football, at least, I have always understood it to be this way.

Sometimes it works for us, we shouldn't forget we collected an estd £75k (I.e. a years salary?) from BRFC for Paul Buckle when he left, almost four years to the day he signed his original contract. Clearly if that had been up for "review" in that summer, Buckle would quite simply have refused to sign it and would have walked away for nothing... as it was, we banked a tidy sum, he departed for Rovers and was sacked inside of 6 months!

In the instance of Ling and Taylor, we are now suffering the consequences of such a contract, as we are continuing to have to pay them while their " contract" runs down. Of course, it could have been very different if someone had of come in in the summer of 2012 and decided that, after our impressive charge to the play offs during his first season (11-12), they wanted to take our successful management team away from us, but nobody did and the rest, as they say, is history.

Some you win, some you lose, with this type of arrangement.

supergulls wrote:Not really it will confirm or deny if I'm right or wrong ! Job done

You said will someone confirm or deny whether the payoff took place, well Andy would know

And it would be incredibly unprofessional of him to do so. I for one hope he doesn't and would never admit that kind of information on a public forum. A deal made and the details of a contract between one person and his employers is none of our business and never should be, much like the details of your contract with your employer. Just because I shop in a shop, like them on facebook and comment on a forum about the shop, I have no right to ask what the manager of the shop's pay is. Nor do I have the right to ask the CEO of the shop to come on the forum and explain the details of the agreements made with the manager just to prove my argument, which I'm not intelligent enough to back up myself, correct.

MidDevon wrote:Interesting rooster.....I was not aware that Lingy had a full year left on his contract when he was "released"....that is news to me and no doubt many others on here....as he left just prior to his engagement anniversary he must have negotiated this new contract whilst he was off sick.....a fantastic piece of work from Lingy....all credit to him for his negotiation skills

Are you in a position to be able to tell us the terms and conditions of Knills contract as well?

Sorry if i didn't come across clearly, I meant he had a one year rolling contract meaning he always had a year to go so didn't have to negotiate, cant help with AK's contract as have no idea.

MidDevon wrote:Matt

I think when someone is made redundant (yes I know it's the job that goes, not the person etc) it is all to understandable that they look around and find areas that money has been spent and wasted, in their opinion...perhaps TUFC4EVER was either someone made redundent or close to someone who was.....just a thought

Super, it's directed at the above.

Matt.

Who is that directed at Matt ?

No one who knows the first thing about the inner workings of the club could possibly post so much rubbish in one post. This is, of course, with due regard to the tone of your post.

Matt.

Not really it will confirm or deny if I'm right or wrong ! Job done

You said will someone confirm or deny whether the payoff took place, well Andy would know

supergulls wrote: Well ask Andy candy and see what he says ?? Ive never lied on here and I never will if I'm in the dark I just keep quiet. But when I know 100% something is fact I will make the comment as to avoid the embaressment of being proved to be incorrect. I would rather not post if it's something I am not informed on rather than using guess work.

Not sure why Andrew Candy is asked to comment?

A bit unfair to ask him to do so

Matt

I think when someone is made redundant (yes I know it's the job that goes, not the person etc) it is all to understandable that they look around and find areas that money has been spent and wasted, in their opinion...perhaps TUFC4EVER was either someone made redundent or close to someone who was.....just a thought

MidDevon wrote:That is not the point, the point is will anyone confirm Ling got the payout you said....I doubt it

Well ask Andy candy and see what he says ?? Ive never lied on here and I never will if I'm in the dark I just keep quiet. But when I know 100% something is fact I will make the comment as to avoid the embaressment of being proved to be incorrect. I would rather not post if it's something I am not informed on rather than using guess work.